The Making of a Nation eBook

It is natural and inevitable that the various social
classes of each succeeding generation should define
their standards of success concretely, that is, by
the lives and achievements of those who have done
great things. In certain social groups the world’s
champion prize fighter is the beau ideal of success.
Among the Camorrists of Italy that ideal is the successful
blackmailer. In many sections of our great cities
the powerful ward boss, whatever be his methods, is
regarded as the embodiment of success. Too often
in America to-day, both in the public press and in
the public mind, the multi-millionaire is regarded
as the pre-eminently successful man. Although
the power to amass wealth is evidence of marked ability,
the homage paid to it is one of the most sinister
tendencies in American life. Ordinarily it means
that the ambitions and achievements of a Jacob, rather
than those of a Joseph, are set before the youth as
the supreme goal for which to strive. A most
hopeful element in the present situation is that many
of the world’s wealthiest men are proclaiming
their sense of responsibility to society in ways both
practical and impressive. Far more significant
than their actual gifts is this public declaration
that each man is indeed his brother’s keeper,
and that no man has a right to use his wealth simply
for his own pleasure.

Leonidas and his fearless patriotic followers at Thermopylae
left an impress upon Greek life and character that
did not fade for centuries. The spirit of Robert
Bruce still lingers among the crags and heather-clad
hills of Scotland. The patriotic devotion of
Garibaldi has imparted a new character to the Italian
race. Two hundred million of the world’s
inhabitants still bear the imprint of the fiery faith
and fanaticism of Mahomet.

America is rich in its memories of the achievements
of such as Washington, Lincoln, Morse, Beecher and
Emerson. What characters in all history seem
to you the best examples of real success? What
men and women in the present generation? How
can the great majority of the boys and girls and the
men and women of to-day be led to accept those higher
ideals of success which are the lodestones drawing
on the race to higher achievement?

VI.

THE METHODS OF SUCCESS.

The story is told of the late President Garfield that
in the heat of a political campaign one of his lieutenants
suggested that he adopt an exceedingly questionable
policy. When Mr. Garfield objected, his lieutenant
replied, “No one will know it.” “But
I shall know,” was the quick reply.

—­“To thine own self be
true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
—­Hamlet, Act
I, Sc. 3.